Almost 3 weeks into its release, Star Wars had accumulated $25 million dollars in box office sales alone. Of course, a portion went to the theatre owners, which went through the Theatre Owner’s Association (TOA). Thankfully, Fox was distributing the film, so the TOA only took a moderate 10% cut of the movie’s box office.
Including marketing expenses, Fox had already recovered their costs, so they decided to sink in another $2 million for further marketing to increase sales, expecting a lot more income from the investment. However, Star Wars IV: A New Hope was already at #1 on the box office charts for not just the week, but the entire month, surpassing all other films released in that time period. It also instantly gained #1 on the highest grossing movie weekend, which caused more people to want to watch it.
A cascading effect similar to an avalanche occurred and sales shot through the roof. 20 Century Fox’s current CEO; Dennis Stanfill was in a meeting room with Mr. Cowl, the representative of Lucas Films, having an enjoyable talk.
After all, a movie that made $25 million in just 3 weeks, and its box office graph seemed to be in a steep upward trend, meaning a portion of its audience was only now getting to hear about its success, as well as the fact that it was still only in 400 theatres as Fox was actively working to increase that number meant that it would likely cross the $100 million in North America mark before its run in theatres ended.
Near the end of their fruitful conversation about the investment for the second movie, and successful negotiation for a small 5% box office cut, Mr. Cowl brought out a thick document that was unrelated to the deal they had just signed.
“This is a script that has caught George’s eyes. He said he was too busy with his next movie so he could not handle making the film, but he said it is really good. I do not know much about making movies and judging movies from scripts, but what I can say is that I got really emotional reading this, and after I finished reading it, I felt empty inside.”
“Oh? And pray tell what he wants to do with this script?” Mr. Stanfill did not react too much to this, the company had too many such scripts. In fact, many of them were really good, which was why they had bought those scripts, but never ended up making them due to various reasons, the largest being internal politics.
“He said he would like for it not to collect dust in some forgotten drawer, and asked me to present it to you. The choice is up to you, Mr. Stanfill, but I personally also like it. Just give it a read, and you will understand. Plus, the owner of the script is a person from our company. He had no… experience in the film industry. I’m sure you get it?” Mr. Cowl winked at the older man who sat across him, on the other side of the table.
“I see. I will be sure to do so. Please do thank George, will ya?”
“Of course.”
“Pleasure doing business with you.”
The two shook hands and parted ways, leaving the stack of papers on the table. Me. Stanfill watched Cowl leave before picking up the thick stack of paper in his hands, reading the text on the front page, ‘The Green Mile.’
…
“Foo, you tellin’ me you wrote Star Wars!” Eddie exclaimed in his usual loud voice.
“I was a part of the writing team, yes.” Mark almost whispered back, trying to prevent his friend from making a scene at the restaurant he had reserved a table for since it was Eddie’s birthday.
“Damn! And you got yourself a stunnin’ girlfriend. Damn!! I shoud’a made me writer!” Eddie ignored Mark’s please to quiet down and took another gulp of his drink in exasperation.
“Edward Regan Murphy! Why are you not articulating your words fully!” an elder woman’s voice froze Eddie on the spot.
“Ah, good morning Mrs. Murphy,” Mark exclaimed comically as he stood up, to greet the unexpected guest appearance that caused Eddie to become a statue.
“Answer me!” She shook Mark’s hand, and so did Mr. Murphy, but both were staring daggers at Eddie.
“Yes! Sorry! I shall abide by the proper diction from this moment forward!” He answer with breaks between each word, thinking of a longer and winded way to say what he wanted to say.
Hearing this, Mr. Murphy simply huffed and turned around, immediately walking out the restaurant door.
“Sorry about that Eddie. Ya know how she gets sometimes. We came here for your birthday celebrations as a surprise, but you did not end up coming home the whole day. After so much time, she got really irritated and came to have some food, only to find you goofing off with your friends. Enjoy your meal, we’ll talk later.”
“Thank’s pop!” Eddie smiled back, holding back the sadness he felt from seeing the grey hair on his father’s sideburns. The man in question just turned around nodded before turning and following his wife.
“Right… So… where were we?”
“Eddie.” Mark faced Eddie with a serious expression.
“Yeah?”
“Go.”
“Go?”
“Go after them. Right now.”
“…”
“Go! Tell them you are sorry, and how much you love them. Spend what is left of your birthday with them. We have enjoyed most of today together, while they were waiting for you at home. Go!”
“R- Right!” Eddie had realised this as well, but was being polite to Mark and Elise who had spent most of the day with him. Without waiting for another second, he stood back up, and ran after his parents.
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Mark sighed, called for the bill, while turning to Elise, “So, wanna head to your home?”
“Hehe, sure~”
…
Currently, Mark was sitting with a newspaper in hand, waiting outside the office of the script department’s head of 20th Century Fox.
The newspaper had many highlights, but the biggest one a month and a half after its release, Star Wars IV: A New Hope had crossed the $60 million mark, which was a considerable achievement for movies at the time, since most successful movies just crossed this mark near the saturation-points of their life-cycle.
On the other hand, Star wars having taken over 1000+ theatres was seeing its daily collections in the millions!
By all standards, it seemed the movie would cross $100 million, which was a milestone that separated B-movies from A-movies. Any movie that crossed this threshold could be considered a box-office hit, and would definitely be promoted as such.
“Mr. Gold will see you now,” the assistant smiled as Mark, who politely smiled back and entered the room.
“Mr. Whitehall… a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh please, Mr. Gold, the pleasure is all mine. Also, please just call me Mark, only the government and strangers call me Mr. Whitehall, and I hope after this meeting we are no longer strangers,” Mark smiled back while shaking the bald man’s hand in a firm grip that was not too tight, but displayed his resolve.
“Good, you can call me Henry. I hope preparations for the second Star Wars movie are coming along fine?”
“I have signed an NDA… I am sorry Henry.”
“Haha, I get it. It’s quite alright actually. In fact, it’s better this way, malicious groups will not get valuable information from you at least. Anyway, getting straight to business, as I’m sure you have your hands full with the next movie, Mr. Stanfill is interested in your script.”
“I understand. What is your offer?”
“$10,000”
“…Should I come back after signing-up with the Screenwriter’s Association?” Mark questioned with a straight face.
The Writer’s Guild was close to a governing body, mainly involved in ensuring copyrights were not infringed, and providing services to writer’s like sessions for scriptwriting for television shows, plays, or films, and providing platforms to sell and purchase scripts for producers and writers alike.
The Screenwriter’s Association was a whole different animal. Like the Writer’s Guild, it had a fixed fee, but that fee was considerably larger, which was why Mark had not signed up with them yet. However, with the higher fees came more benefits. They set a minimum of $50,000 for any low-budget feature film, and an additional $50,000 for every $1 million more in the production budget after $5 million. Furthermore, they also provided agents who would take anywhere between 3% and 10% of the income of the writer in exchange for providing them opportunities to sell their scripts, and handling all negotiations.
Mr. Henry Gold immediately closed his mouth, his lips stretching thin, and after a moment of contemplation he spoke, “I don’t think that will be necessary. I will offer $50,000 for the script. What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
“I would like to know when the production of the movie will begin?”
“…Well, such things are not something we would usually share with scriptwriters,” Mark could clearly see the derision in Henry’s eyes.
‘He must think of scriptwriters as below producers and directors, perhaps even below actors. Is this the view of Hollywood as a whole, or just Henry?’ Mark mused while listening to Henry’s words.
“However, since it is Mr. Lucas’ request to actually make the movie, we are proud to tell you, Mark, that the Green Mile movie will go into production by at the latest, April 1979. Production should take anywhere between 2 months and 6 months depending on problems that might arise. Of course, these are my personal estimates, and they might be wrong, but this is what is hoped. The team in charge of analysing the market potential of this script says it’s really likely to be a success. At least we will likely not be losing any money on it,” he said with a straight face.
Mark clenched his fist under the table, but did not react outwardly.
“I’m assuming box office share is out of the question?”
“…hehe… that would be an apt guess, Mark,” Henry smiled like a sleazy salesman getting close to closing a deal with a client.
“Then I would like a fixed bonus if the movie grosses more than $100 million. I’m sure you can do something.”
Henry did not reply, and instead scratched his chin thoughtfully. What Mark was requesting was not that outlandish, at least it was not a box office share. And a bonus from milestone completion would definitely be beneficial to the company, whether it crossed the mark or not.
“Another $50,000 after crossing $100 million.”
“Oh come on. I have not said anything, why are you being so cheap. I did not even bargain for the script price. Gimme something good, aren’t we going to be friends after this?” Mark wiggled his eyebrows comedically, sparking a suppressed chuckle from Henry.
“Alright, how about this. Past $100 million dollars, every $50 million the movie makes, you as the scriptwriter will receive $100,000 as a bonus. But at $100 million, you will receive $50,000 as a bonus.”
‘If the movie makes $250 million… like before… then that means I could be looking at almost $400,000. Yeah, this is a much better deal, and it also benefits the company as it is dependent on them earning 500 times the money they have to give me… a beneficial deal for both parties.’
“Alright, it was great doing business with you, Henry. But I should tell you, next time I will not be at the negotiation table, but my agent will… when I eventually get one. Negotiations will not be so quick and easy,” Mark shrugged before shaking the man’s hand.
“That is okay. The contract will be ready by tomorrow, why don’t you come over and sign it when you can.”
“I am sorry, but I have work tomorrow, and most of the next week. It takes almost 5 hours to get here from the studio, so I can only make it on a Saturday like today. Or a Sunday, but I’m sure you would not want to waste your Sunday doing work, am I right?”
“Haha, that’s quite alright! I’ll be here on Saturday, and we can sign the deal then.”
Mark nodded and left, his smile fading into a sombre expression as he returned to the bus stop. Originally he was going to go to Elise’s place, but now he needed time to think about things. Once he got in the bus, his thoughts began to wander.
‘I will have no control over the casting, or choosing of director for The Green Mile. I still don’t know if it will even become a Box Office Hit or not. I’m not a director, and I don’t even want to be. However, the only other role that would give me control would be the producer role. However, to do that I need to have enough money to at least make one movie.’
‘$50,000 is nor nearly enough to do anything. Even $400,000 is too little to make a movie. If I am going to make a movie, I need money. But who do I get money from… It’s still 1979, and I am only 19 years old. If I want to make money off the stock market, it would either be from long-term investments, which would take many years to bear fruit, or through the various economic bubbles.’
‘But from what I remember, the Dotcom bubble would only occur in the 1990s, and the real-estate bubble after that. Hm… I remember there being something wrong in Japan as well. It should have been in the 1980s… but what was it?’
‘Hmm… should I just throw all my money at Japan, and see how it goes? No, that does not make much sense. Should I take a loan? What do I have as collateral that is worth millions of dollars?’
Mark’s thoughts wandered as the bus stopped and he got off, not realising he had still somehow ended up at Elise’s rented place.
‘Well, now that I am here, might as well get my mind of things.